Wanted to take a look into this.

For if we understand the mindset behind web 2.0, we are that much closer to tapping into its possibilities.

So, to the ingredients that describe, from the people who know ( a few anyway), I wanted to find some keywords, insights and descriptions.

Starting from my now favourite resource, The Gurteen Knowledge Website, I decided to check out what they have on the subject. I got this:

It’s democratising the web. It’s also adding value to the content that is contributed to by all users, rather than just a corporate entity.It’s about the way people think Ian Mcnairn, Program Director, Web Technology & Innovation, Global e-business Transformation, IBM SWG.

And I got:
Web 2.0 has been defined as any web site that provides value through the actions of its users, and as such includes Blogs, Wikis and other forms of collaborative or social tools. Blogs can bring great involvement and transparency when used in an organisational context. The originator becomes real, human and influential, while the new, participatory culture gives power to the users and draws them in to taking ownership of the published material.

So now I know VALUE ADDED BY THE CONSUMERS; THE WAY PEOPLE THINK; DEMOCRATISING; INVOLVEMENT; TRANSPARENCY; PARTICIPATORY; HUMAN.
It’s all of that.

That gets rid of my always initial divergent need to explore and create a collage of nodes in my universe of meaning, before adopting a more structured approach.
Ross Dawson, Strategy Consultant, lists 6 key characteristics of web 2.0. These are participation, social media, emergence, visibility, shifting and conversation. They’ll do nicely:

Participation

How we the consumers, have become the producers! And on a global scale. A turning point in human history since the introduction of free blogging platforms

CONSUMER PRODUCERS now to be added to above

Social media

The cumulative effect of everyone’s creativity online has created a presence that equals that of the established media.

But as Ross Dawson points out, these two presences are interdependent and there is a fantastic symbiosis going on: The symbiosis of mainstream media and blogs
Ok- I’ll translate that to - INTERDEPENDENCY, HAVING AN EFFECT ON TRADITIONAL MEDIA, PUBLIC VOICE

Emergence

The emergence of vast amounts of user generated content has created an ever growing need to be filtered, categorised, further tagged and possibly promoted.

Yes, and its about tracking the memes, that is, bits of self contained ideas, behaviours, styles or even usages, across the web!
Oh, and there are sites doing this, we know, but maybe we don’t know about them all.
One that was new to me was Techmeme a site that uncovers the biggest new stories.
Thanks for telling us about all these meme trackers, or user- filtering sites Ross.

There are a few more we might like to monitor too:

€¢ Fark.com
€¢ memeorandum
€¢ Topix.net

And on a side note, because I have to add it- I’ve just found this excellent blog on how to monitor this media landscape, by Josh Hallett.

My list now includes MEMES, MEME TRACKERS, USER FILTERING, TAGS,

Visibility

Which brings me to visibility.

Web 2.0 has become a great marketing tool for companies. They can get their message out as well as special deals and information to their growing fan groups via company blogs, rss feeds.

Of course it goes the other way too, with users giving their opinions back to the company on their site.
It makes you think doesn’t it that the corporate world are way opening up aren’t they? To consumer opinions- good or bad? Well, wouldn’t bet on it. Done a little research and got this (from Business Week Online):
The public corporate blogging scene is not so expansive. Only 40 of the Fortune 500 are doing it. From The Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki.

Cannondale, a bike making company, openly admits that they are letting trusted bloggers use their site. Later, they may transition to letting untrusted ones use it too. However, there will be editing of posts.

Guess it is a matter of trust when it comes to letting ousiders in.

However, blogging inside companies, its something different. Making their blogs into corporate intranets, many companies are finding that it’s easier to do this with blogging technologies than websites.

There is another aspect too-Executive blogging.

Building credibility and engaging in conversations with the public is not the only benefit, as well as the obvious marketing angle. CEO blogging as an organisational change mechanism seems to bring in a dynamic hitherto unseen: the outside in dynamic :

External audiences and media influence provides a powerful force in terms of employee acceptance and strategy elaboration. As they are secondary sources they often twist the change narrative away from corporate language towards more comprehensible sub cultural languages that resonate with employee lifeworlds. (Executive blogging)Which brings me to shifting

And a few words more: TRUST, OUTSIDE IN DYNAMICS, CONVERSATIONS, ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE and I’ll add, because it makes sense.. IN THE CHANGE ZONE

Shifting

Yes, there is a whole lot of shifting going on: Time-shifting, space-shifting, and format-shifting on lots of different platforms and hand held devices.
So PORTABILITY, FLEXIBILITY should I think be added to the above list.

ConversationRoss Dawson writes: “It is in fact more dangerous for companies not to blog than it is to blog. The new tools enable conversation, engagement, and evangelist customers. Without them, you are subject to mob justice.

Significantly, Ross ends his list of to do things for company marketeers, with Go where lead consumers are going.

THE MINDSET, then, behind web 2.0 is being created by us, the lead consumers for ourselves for spreading memes (those ideas), in human conversations, to more of us for

That’s where I have to stop. Didn’t get that bit.
However, the answer may lie in user generated content.

If it’s user generated it will take on user characteristics, language, interests, personalities and will impact all the way round on the established media, business, politics, entertainment, culture, education and society.

And it will take on the characteristics of the lead consumers/producers.